In HBCU excellence information…
Supply: Adriana Sim
Atlanta just lately hosted The GameChangHER Brunch & Awards, a robust celebration of Black ladies in sports activities, management, and group impression who should not solely breaking boundaries but in addition guaranteeing the doorways keep open for these coming behind them.
Lately held on the Renaissance Atlanta Airport Gateway Lodge, this occasion stood as a spotlight of the SWAC Basketball Championship Event, marking the primary time the event was hosted in Atlanta. With that shift got here a way of grandeur and significance and an plain reminder that Black ladies in sports activities deserve their flowers, their energy, and their platforms.
Backed by Insights Advertising and the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority (AFCRA), the brunch gathered HBCU athletes, executives, policymakers, and business leaders for a morning crammed with well-deserved recognition and thought-provoking dialog. ESPN’s first Black feminine play-by-play commentator, Tiffany Greene, a lady who embodies what it means to be the primary however not the final, hosted the occasion.
Supply: Adriana Sim
The Georgia Worldwide Conference Middle offered the proper setting, and as quickly as I stepped into the house, I may inform this was no abnormal brunch—it was a motion. There was in depth decor and activations reflecting the celebration of Black excellence in sports activities, magnificence, and enterprise, with CurlDaze Haircare and Social Home Vodka displaying up as proud supporters of HBCU tradition.
Supply: Adriana Sim
Supply: Adriana Sim
Earlier than the occasion formally kicked off, Georgia State Senator Sonya Halpern informed BOSSIP concerning the significance of being honored as a GamechangeHER.
“I’m excited to be right here and acknowledged as a lady in sports activities and for the work I’m doing. I all the time say politics and sports activities are the identical—it’s all about who’s writing the foundations and what are the foundations of the sport.”
Supply: Adriana Sim
Tiffany Greene on Why Illustration Issues
As soon as brunch was underway, Tiffany Greene took the mic to set the tone for the day, reminding everybody that they weren’t simply there to be seen, they have been there as a result of they deserved to be honored.
Supply: Adriana Sim
“It’s about creating an area the place you don’t even see your self. All about saying, ‘I imagine and need to be right here.”
She then welcomed SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland, who emphasised simply how important this occasion was for the convention and the Black ladies main it.
“That is considerably vital to us. Not as a result of they’re honoring my boss—although that’s all the time a superb factor—however as a result of they’re honoring leaders. Not solely on this state however this metropolis and nation. I do know it’s Ladies’s Historical past Month, however each day is Ladies’s Historical past Month. I say this as a result of one among your honorees, Adeenah Pooler, she is our Senior Affiliate. The SWAC has been round since 1920 and by no means has there been a feminine quantity two within the SWAC and as quickly as I get run over by a bus, she’s going to be primary.”
Supply: Adriana Sim
American Sports activities continues to make progress with Ladies persevering with a listing of “firsts!”
GameChangHER Award Winners: The Ladies Main the Cost
Then, the second everybody was ready for—the awards.
Supply: Adriana Sim
Supply: Adriana Sim
Supply: Adriana Sim
See extra of our GameChangHER Brunch & Awards recap on the flip.
Memorable Moments: Phrases That Will Echo Past the Ballroom
From the rostrum, honorees delivered highly effective speeches that left the viewers impressed and motivated. A number of the standout moments included phrases of knowledge.
President Tomikia P. LeGrande: “Management is a state of being, a mind-set. After we consider change makers, we predict of people that affect others. Nobody hires leaders to maintain the established order. I’m solely one among two ladies within the President’s Council.”
Supply: Adriana Sim
Angela Suggs: “Thank the lads that made a approach and didn’t stand in the way in which. Tremendous honored to be right here.”
Senator Sonya Halpern: “SWAC isn’t only a sports activities convention, it’s a legacy.”
Dr. Genese A. Lavalais: “Expertise is in all places, however alternative will not be—that’s why we should work to alter this.”
Terri Lee: “We’re in a season the place our democracy is being threatened. If we don’t rise up for what’s proper, we’ll nonetheless be preventing. It’s our accountability to carry people accountable.”
Lalia Brock: “Thanks for considering of me in the identical period and for giving ladies an area to be celebrated. I imagine that historical past repeats itself. If we take the ability of sport to do wonderful issues, I feel we’re going to just do effective.”
Erika Mitchell: “I want to acknowledge my late school coach and highschool coach. I bear in mind when Coach Crump at Alabama State known as my father and informed him, ‘Give her to me, and I’ll be certain she graduates.’ That is what HBCUs do. I’m the caregiver of my father, who’s battling stage 4 most cancers, however I do know he could be pleased with me. I advocate for HBCU college students to hitch the SWAC as a result of sports activities assist college students matriculate by means of school and assist them turn out to be leaders. This convention helped form my journey.”
Mayor Professional Tem Jamelle McKenzie: “It’s not who you’re identified for however fairly who you may have come to be.”
Supply: Adriana Sim
The GameChangHER Brunch & Awards not solely acknowledges however empowers the subsequent technology. This occasion is about giving ladies their flowers, now! Black ladies in sports activities aren’t simply making historical past—they’re the long run.
